An ECG device is widely used to obtain medical (i.e. biopotential) signals containing information indicative of electrical activity associated with the heart and pulmonary system. The signals obtained are one of the important bases for some disease diagnosis. The ECG device generally comprises a plurality (for example six) of torso electrodes which are applied to a torso portion of a patient and two pairs of limb electrodes which are mounted on a respective limp clamp and applied to the left and right limbs of the patient, respectively. These electrodes connect with an ECG module via the respective cables. In use, cable failure often occurs because of excessive bending cycles caused by various factors such as inappropriate placement of the electrodes, movement of the patient's body and/or their use model. Especially the cables connecting with the limb electrodes are easier subject to cable failure due to their unique use model.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional limb clamp 1 for an ECG device. The limb clamp 1 generally, comprises a first clamp portion 3, a second clamp portion 5, a spring element 7 interconnecting the first clamp portion 3 and the second clamp portion 5, and a medical electrode 9 mounted at the first clamp portion 3. The medical electrode 9 generally comprises a conductive support cylinder 11 that is fixed relative to the first clamp portion 3. When a cable 13 is inserted into and fixed to the support cylinder 11 of the medical electrode 9 that is fixed relative to the first clamp portion 3, the movement of the medical electrode 9 directly results in bending of the respective cable 1, thereby possibly causing cable failure. Further, it is possible for the left and right limb clamps to be applied reversely to the right and left limbs, which causes worse bending of the respective cables as shown in FIG. 1 and thus results in cable failure. Cable failure contributes to wrong or inaccurate signals, which in turn result in wrong or inaccurate diagnosis. Replacing a failed cable not only increases total cost of ownership for the ECG device but also is a waste of time and causes the ECG device to be out of service for a period of time. All in all, this issue has a big impact on the ECG industry all the time.
Past efforts focused primarily on increasing the durability of the cable itself, for example, thickening the lead wire of the cable, which further increases the cost of the ECG device and makes the patient feel uncomfortable.
Thus, there is a need to make improvements on the conventional medical electrode.